
AMERICAN 
POLITICAL 
CLASSICS 




JEFFERSON 
WASHINGTON 

LINCOLN 



J 




Class. 
Book.. 



GopightN?_ 



COFHRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



To 

Miranda Wilmarth Lux, 

whose sweet nobility of character 

was an inspiration to all 

who \new her. 



THE AMERICAN 
POLITICAL CLASSICS 



JEFFERSON, WASHINGTON 
and LINCOLN 



Edited by 

George Clark Sargent, 

for the use of 

The Lux School of Industrial Training, 

1920. 






Copyright, 1920, 

by 

The Lux School of Industrial Training, 

San Francisco, Cal. 



Printed by 
The Recorder Printing and Publishing Co. 



©CU597742 ^ ^ m 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 



The American Revolution was brought 
about by the ambition of the English Parlia- 
ment to make itself supreme over a people 
who were not represented in it. As Benja- 
min Franklin expressed it, !the Parliament 
claimed to be omnipotent before it had be- 
come omniscient. It started in a revolt against 
the king's officers, but it was soon seen that 
nothing less than complete independence 
could make the colonists safe. When this 
had been resolved upon, the writing of the 
great state paper by which it was proclaimed 
was committed to Thomas Jefferson. It is as 
follows : 

Declaration of Independence. 

"When, in the course of human events, it 
becomes necessary for one people to dissolve 
the political bands which have connected 
them with another, and to assume, among the 



6 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

powers of the earth, the separate and equal 
station to which the laws of nature and of 
nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to 
the opinions of mankind requires that they 
should declare the causes which impel them to 
the separation. 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, 
that all men are created equal; that they are 
endowed by their Creator with certain un- 
alienable rights; that among these are life, 
liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That, 
to secure these rights, governments are insti- 
tuted among men, deriving their just powers 
from the consent of the governed ; that, when- 
ever any form of government becomes destruc- 
tive to these ends, it is the right of the people 
to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new 
government, laying its foundation on such 
principles, and organizing its powers in such 
form, as to them shall seem most likely to 
effect their safety and happiness." 

Then follow statements as to the orderly 
way in which the government may be 
changed, after which eomes an indictment 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 7 

of the King of England for his many; acts 
of oppression. 

After seven years of war, the colonists made 
good their independence, and the country 
has since -become the most powerful on earth. 
The growth of a people is often marked 
by the speeches of great men. Currents of 
thought, having small beginnings, gather 
strength until all think alike, but in a crude 
and ineffectual way. Then comes a genius 
who voices the dimly felt sentiment of the 
people. When he has spoken, all can see, 
and seeing, believe the simple truths he 
utters. It is like a confused mass which sud- 
denly bursts into crystal form, — clear, beauti- 
ful and sharply defined. Such was the fare- 
well Address of Washington. The colonists, 
who were now the people of the new repub- 
lic, remembered their recent trials, vexations 
and dangers, so that when he spoke, it was 
as if light had come out of darkness. No 
true American can read his noble words 
without being elevated to a higher plane 
of thought and citizenship. So true was 



8 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

his vision, and so sound his advice, that his 
Farewell Address furnished the rule of con- 
duct of this country for a century after he 
left the presidency. The address is as fol- 
lows : 

Washington's Farewell Address. 

"Friends and Fellow-Citizens: The period 
for a new election of a citizen, to administer 
the executive government of the United 
States, being not far distant, and the time 
actually arrived when your thoughts must 
be employed in designating the person who 
is to be clothed with that important trust, 
it appears to me proper, especially as it 
may conduce to a more distinct expression 
of the public voice, that I should now 
apprise you of the resolution I have formed, 
to decline being considered among the num- 
ber of those out of whom a choice is to be 
made. 

"I beg you, at the same time, to do me 
the justice to be assured that this resolution 
has not been taken without a strict regard 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 9 

to all the considerations appertaining to the 
relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his 
country; and that, in withdrawing the tender 
of service, which silence in my situation 
might imply, I am influenced by no diminu- 
tion of zeal for your future interest; no 
deficiency of grateful respect for your past 
kindness; but am supported by a full convic- 
tion that the step is compatible with both. 
"The acceptance of, and continuance 
hitherto in, the office to which your suffrages 
have twice called me, have been a uniform 
sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty, 
and to a deference for what appeared to be 
your desire. I constantly hoped that it 
would have been much earlier in my power, 
consistently with motives which I was not 
at liberty to disregard, to return to that 
retirement from which I had been reluc- 
tantly drawn. The strength of my inclina- 
tion to do this, previous to the last election, 
had even led to the preparation of an address 
to declare it to you; but mature reflection 
on the then perplexed and critical posture 



IO AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

of our affairs with foreign nations, and the 
unanimous advice of persons entitled to my 
confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea. 

"I rejoice that the state of your concerns, 
external as well as internal, no longer ren- 
ders the pursuit of inclination incompatible 
with the sentiment of duty or propriety; 
and am persuaded, whatever partiality may 
be retained for my services, that, in the 
present circumstances of our country, you 
will not disapprove my determination to 
retire. 

"The impressions with which I first under- 
took the arduous trust were explained on the 
proper occasion. In the discharge of this 
trust I will only say that I have with good 
intentions contributed towards the organiza- 
tion and administration of the government 
the best exertions of which a very fallible 
judgment was capable. Not unconscious 
in the outset of the inferiority of my quali- 
fications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps 
still more in the eyes of others, has strength- 
ened the motives to diffidence of myself ; and 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS II 

every day the increasing weight of years 
admonishes me more and more that the shade 
of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be 
welcome. Satisfied that, if any circumstances 
have given peculiar value to my services, 
they were temporary, I have the consolation 
to believe that, while choice and prudence 
invite me to quit the political scene, patri- 
otism does not forbid it. 

"In looking forward to the moment which 
is intended to terminate the career of my 
public life, my feelings do not permit me 
to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that 
debt of gratitude which I owe to my beloved 
country for the many honors it has conferred 
upon me; still more for the steadfast con- 
fidence with which it has supported me; and 
for the opportunities I have thence enjoyed 
of manifesting my inviolable attachment by 
services faithful and persevering, though in 
usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits 
have resulted to our country from these serv- 
ices, let it always be remembered to your 
praise, and as an instructive example in our 



12 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

annals, that under circumstances in which 
the passions, agitated in every direction, were 
liable to mislead, amidst appearances some- 
times dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often 
discouraging, in situations in which not un- 
frequently want of success has countenanced 
the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your 
support was the essential prop of the efforts, 
and the guaranty of the plans by which they 
were effected. Profoundly penetrated with 
this idea, I shall carry it with me to my 
grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing 
vows that Heaven may continue to you the 
choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your 
union and brotherly affection may be per- 
petual; that the free constitution, which is 
the work of your hands, may be sacredly 
maintained; that its administration in every 
department may be stamped with wisdom 
and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness 
of the people of these states, under the aus- 
pices of liberty, may be made complete, by 
so careful a preservation and so prudent a 
use of this blessing, as will acquire to them 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 1 3 

the glory of recommending it to the applause, 
the affection, and the adoption of every 
nation which is yet a stranger to it. 

"Here, perhaps, I ought to stop. But a 
solicitude for your welfare, which cannot end 
but with my life, and the apprehension of 
danger natural to that solicitude, urge me, on 
an occasion like the present, to offer to your 
solemn contemplation, and to recommend to 
your frequent review, some sentiments, which 
are the result of much reflection, of no incon- 
siderable observation, and which appear to 
me all-important to the permanency of your 
felicity as a people. These will be offered to 
you with the more freedom, as you can only 
see in them the disinterested warnings of a 
parting friend, who can possibly have no per- 
sonal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I 
forget, as an encouragement to it, your indul- 
gent reception of my sentiments on a former 
and not dissimilar occasion. Interwoven as is 
the love of liberty with every ligament of 
your heart, no recommendation of mine is 
necessary to fortify or confirm the attachment. 



14 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

"The unity of government, which consti- 
tutes you one people, is also now dear to you. 
It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the 
edifice of your real independence, the support 
of your tranquility at home, your peace 
abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of 
that very liberty which you so highly prize. 
But as it is easy to foresee that from different 
causes and from different quarters much 
pains will be taken, many artifices employed, 
to weaken in your minds the conviction of 
this truth ; as this is the point in your politi- 
cal fortress against which the batteries of in- 
ternal and external enemies will be most con- 
stantly and actively (though often covertly 
and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite mo- 
ment that you should properly estimate the 
immense value of your national union to your 
collective and individual happiness ; that you 
should cherish a cordial, habitual, and im- 
movable attachment to it; accustoming your- 
selves to think and speak of it as of the 
palladium of your political safety and pros- 
perity; watching for its preservation with 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 1 5 

jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever 
may suggest even a suspicion that it can in 
any event be abandoned; and indignantly 
frowning upon the first dawning of every at- 
tempt to alienate any portion of our country 
from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties 
which now link together the various parts. 

"For this you have every inducement of 
sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or 
choice, of a common country, that country 
has a right to concentrate your affections. The 
name of America, which belongs to you, in 
your national capacity, must always exalt the 
just pride of patriotism, more than any ap- 
pellation derived from local discriminations. 
With slight shades of difference, you have the 
same religion, manners, habits, and political 
principles. You have in a common cause 
fought and triumphed together; the inde- 
pendence and liberty you possess are the 
work of joint counsels and joint efforts, of 
common dangers, sufferings and successes. 

"But these considerations, however power- 
fully they address themselves to your sensi- 



1 6 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

bility, are greatly outweighed by those which 
apply more immediately to your interest. 
Here every portion of our country finds the 
most commanding motives for carefully 
guarding and preserving the union of the 
whole. 

"The North, in an unrestrained intercourse 
with the South, protected by the equal laws 
of a common government, finds in the pro- 
ductions of the latter great additional re- 
sources of maritime and commercial enter- 
prise and precious materials of manufactur- 
ing industry. The South, in the same inter- 
course, benefiting by the agency of the North, 
sees its agriculture grow and its commerce 
expand. Turning partly into its own chan- 
nels the seamen of the North, it finds its par- 
ticular navigation invigorated; and, while it 
contributes in different ways to nourish and 
increase the general mass of the national 
navigation, it looks forward to the protection 
of a maritime strength, to which itself is un- 
equally adapted. The East, in a like inter- 
course with the West, already finds, and in 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 1 7 

the progressive improvement of interior com- 
munications by land and water will more and 
more find, a valuable vent for the commodi- 
ties which it brings from abroad, or manu- 
factures at home. The West derives from the 
East supplies requisite to its growth and com- 
fort; and, what is perhaps of still greater 
consequence, it must of necessity owe the se- 
cure enjoyment of indispensable outlets for 
its own productions to the weight, influence, 
and the future maritime strength of the At- 
lantic side of the Union, directed by an in- 
dissoluble community of interest as one na- 
tion. Any other tenure by which the West 
can hold this essential advantage, whether 
derived from its own separate strength or 
from an apostate and unnatural connection 
with any foreign power, must be intrinsically 
precarious. 

"While, then, every part of our country 
thus feels an immediate and particular in- 
terest in union, all the parts combined cannot 
fail to find in the united mass of means and 
efforts greater strength, greater resource, pro- 



1 8 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

portionably greater security from external 
danger, a less frequent interruption of their 
peace by foreign nations, and, what is of in- 
estimable value, they must derive from union 
an exemption from those broils and wars be- 
tween themselves, which so frequently afflict 
neighboring countries not tied together by the 
same governments, which their own rival- 
ships alone would be sufficient to produce, but 
which opposite foreign alliances, attachments 
and intrigues would stimulate and embitter. 
Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity 
of those overgrown military establishments 
which, under any form of government, are 
inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be 
regarded as particularly hostile to repub- 
lican liberty. In this sense it is that your 
union ought to be considered as a main prop 
of your liberty, and that the love of the one 
ought to endear to you the preservation of 
the other. 

"These considerations speak a persuasive 
language to every reflecting and virtuous 
mind, and exhibit the continuance of the 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 1 9 

union as a primary object of patriotic desire. 
Is there a doubt whether a common govern- 
ment can embrace so large a sphere? Let 
experience solve it. To listen to mere spec- 
ulation in such a case were criminal. We 
are authorized to hope that a proper organi- 
zation of the whole, with the auxiliary- 
agency of governments for the respective sub- 
divisions, will afford a happy issue to the 
experiment. It is well worth a fair and full 
experiment. With such powerful and obvi- 
ous motives to union, affecting all parts of 
our country, while experience shall not have 
demonstrated its impracticability, there will 
always be reason to distrust the patriotism 
of those who in any quarter may endeavor to 
weaken its bands. 

"In contemplating the causes which may 
disturb our union, it occurs as a matter of 
serious concern, that any ground should have 
been furnished for characterizing parties by 
geographical discriminations, Northern and 
Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence de- 
signing men may endeavor to excite a belief 



20 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

that there is a real difference of local interests 
and views. One of the expedients of party 
to acquire influence, within particular dis- 
tricts, is to misrepresent the opinions and 
aims of other districts. You cannot shield 
yourselves too much against the jealousies 
and heart-burnings which spring from these 
misrepresentations; they tend to render alien 
to each other those who ought to be bound 
together by faternal affection. The inhabit- 
ants of our western country have lately had 
a useful lesson on this head; they have seen, 
in the negotiation by the executive, and in 
the unanimous ratification by the senate, of 
the treaty with Spain, and in the universal 
satisfaction at that event throughout the 
United States, a decisive proof how unfound- 
ed were the suspicions propagated among 
them of a policy in the general government 
and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to their 
interests in regard to the Mississippi; they 
have been witnesses to the formation of two 
treaties, that with Great Britain and that 
with Spain, which secure to them everything 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 21 

they eould desire, in respect to our foreign 
relations, towards confirming their prosper- 
ity. Will it not be their wisdom to rely for 
the preservation of these advantages on the 
Union by which they were procured? Will 
they not henceforth be deaf to those advisers, 
if such there are, who would sever them from 
their brethren and connect them with aliens? 
"To the efficacy permanency of your 
Union, a government for the whole is indis- 
pensable. No alliances, however strict, be- 
tween the parts can be an adequate substi- 
tute; they must inevitably experience the in- 
fractions and interruptions which all alliances 
in all times have experienced. Sensible of 
this momentous truth, you have improved 
upon your first essay, by the adoption of a 
constitution of government better calculated 
than your former for an intimate union, and 
for the efficacious management of your com- 
mon concerns. This Government, the off- 
spring of our own choice, uninfluenced and 
unaw 7 ed, adopted upon full investigation and 
mature deliberation, completely free in its 



22 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

principles, in the distribution of its powers, 
uniting security with energy, and containing 
within itself a provision for its own amend- 
ment, has a just claim to your confidence and 
your support. Respect for its authority, com- 
pliance w T ith its laws, acquiescence in its 
measures, are duties enjoined by the funda- 
mental maxims of true Liberty. The basis 
of our political systems is the right of the 
people to make and to alter their constitu- 
tions of government. But the constitution 
which at any time exists, till changed by an 
explicit and authentic act of the whole peo- 
ple, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The 
very idea of the power and the right of the 
people to establish government presupposes 
the duty of every individual to obey the es- 
tablished government. 

"All obstructions to the execution of the 
Laws, all combinations and associations, un- 
der whatever plausible character, with the 
real design to direct, control, counteract, or 
awe the regular deliberation and action of 
the constituted authorities, are destructive of 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 23 

this fundamental principle, and of fatal tend- 
ency. They serve to organize faction, to give 
it an artificial and extraordinary force; to 
put in the place of the delegated will of the 
nation, the will of a party, often a small but 
artful and enterprising minority of the com- 
munity; and, according to the alternative 
triumphs of different parties, to make the 
public administration the mirror of the ill- 
concerted and incongruous projects of fash- 
ion, rather than the organs of consistent and 
wholesome plans digested by common coun- 
cils, and modified by mutual interests. How- 
ever combinations or associations of the 
above description may now and then answer 
popular ends, they are likely, in the course 
of time and things, to become potent engines, 
by which cunning, ambitious and unprinci- 
pled men will be enabled to subvert the 
power of the people, and to usurp for them- 
selves the reins of government; destroying 
afterwards the very engines which have lifted 
them to unjust dominion. 



24 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

"Towards the preservation of your gov- 
ernment, and the permanency of your present 
happy state, it is requisite, not only that you 
steadily discountenance irregular oppositions 
to its acknowledged authority, but also that 
you resist with care the spirit of innovation 
upon its principles, however specious the pre- 
texts. One method of assault may be to effect, 
in the forms of the constitution, alterations, 
which will impair the energy of the system, 
and thus to undermine what cannot be di- 
rectly overthrown. In all the changes to 
which you may be invited, remember that 
time and habit are at least as necessary to 
fix the true character of governments as of 
other human institutions; that experience is 
the surest standard by which to test the real 
tendency of the existing constitution of a 
country; that facility in changes, upon the 
credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, ex- 
poses to perpetual change, from the endless 
variety of hypothesis and opinion; and re- 
member, especially, that, for the efficient 
management of your common interests, in a 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 25 

country so extensive as ours, a government of 
as much vigor as is consistent with the per- 
fect security of liberty is indispensable. Lib- 
erty itself will find in such a government, 
with powers properly distributed and ad- 
justed, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, 
little else than a name, where the govern- 
ment is too feeble to withstand the enter- 
prises of faction, to confine each member 
of the society within the limits prescribed 
by the laws, and to maintain all in the se- 
cure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of 
person and property. 

"I have already intimated to you the dan- 
ger of parties in the State, with particu- 
lar reference to the founding of them on 
geographical discrimination. Let me now 
take a more comprehensive view, and warn 
you in the most solemn manner against the 
baneful effects of the spirit of party, gen- 
erally. 

"This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable 
from our nature, having its root in the strong- 
est passions of the human mind. It exists 



26 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

under different shapes in all governments, 
more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; 
but in those of the popular form it is seen in 
its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst 
enemy. 

"The alternate domination of one fac- 
tion over another, sharpened by the spirit of 
revenge, natural to party dissension, which 
in different ages and countries has perpe- 
trated the most horrid enormities, is itself a 
frightful despotism. But this leads at length 
to a more formal and permanent despotism. 
The disorders and miseries which result, 
gradually incline the minds of men to seek 
security and repose in the absolute power of 
an individual; and sooner or later the chief 
of some prevailing faction, more able or 
more fortunate than his competitors, turns 
this disposition to the purposes of his own 
elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. 

"Without looking forward to an extremity 
of this kind (which neverthless ought not to 
be entirely out of sight), the common and 
continued mischiefs of the spirit of party are 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 27 

sufficient to make it the interest and duty of 
a wise people to discourage and restrain it. 

"It serves always to distract the public 
councils and enfeeble the public administra- 
tion. It agitates the community with ill- 
founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles 
the animosity of one part against another, 
foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It 
opens the doors to foreign influence and 
corruption, which find a facilitated access to 
the government itself through the channels of 
party passions. Thus the policy and the will 
of one country are subjected to the policy and 
will of another. 

"There is an opinion that parties in free 
countries are useful checks upon the adminis- 
tration of the government, and serve to keep 
alive the spirit of liberty. This within cer- 
tain limits is probably true, and in govern- 
ments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may 
look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon 
the spirit of party. But in those of the popu- 
lar character, in governments purely elective, 
it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From 



28 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

their natural tendency, it is certain there will 
always be enough of that spirit for every 
salutory purpose. And there being constant 
danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by 
force of public opinion to mitigate and as- 
suage it. A fire not to be quenched, it de- 
mands a uniform vigilance to prevent its 
bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warm- 
ing, it should consume. 

"It is important, likewise, that the 
habits of thinking in a free country should 
inspire caution, in those intrusted with its 
administration, to confine themselves within 
their respective constitutional spheres, avoid- 
ing in the exercise of the powers of one de- 
partment to encroach upon another. The 
spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate 
the powers of all the departments in one, and 
thus to create, whatever the for mof govern- 
ment, a real despotism. A just estimate of 
that love of power and proneness to abuse it, 
which predominates in the human heart, is 
sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this posi- 
tion. The necessity of reciprocal checks in 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 29 

the exercise of political power, by dividing 
and distributing it into different depositories, 
and constituting each the guardian of the 
public weal against invasions by the others, 
has been evinced by experiments ancient and 
modern, some of them in our country and 
under our own eyes. To preserve them must 
be as necessary as to institute them. If, in 
the opinion of the people, the distribution or 
modification of the constitutional powers be 
in any particular wrong, let it be corrected 
by an amendment in the way which the Con- 
stitution designates. But let there be no 
change by usurpation; for, though this, in 
one instance, may be the instrument of good, 
it is the customary weapon by which free 
governments are destroyed. The precedent 
must always greatly overbalance in perma- 
nent evil any partial or transient benefit 
which the use can at any time yield. 

"Of all the dispositions and habits which 
lead to political prosperity, religion and 
morality are indispensable supports. In vain 
would that man claim the tribute of patriot- 



30 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

ism, who should labor to subvert these great 
pillars of human happiness, these firmest 
props of the duties of men and citizens. The 
mere politician equally with the pious man 
ought to respect and to cherish them. A vol- 
ume could not trace all their connections with 
private and public felicity. Let it simply be 
asked, Where is the security for property, for 
reputation, for life, if the sense of religious 
obligation desert the oaths, which are the in- 
struments of investigation in courts of jus- 
tice? And let us with caution indulge the 
supposition that morality can be maintained 
without religion. Whatever may be con- 
ceded to the influence of refined education 
on minds of peculiar structure, reason and 
experience both forbid us to expect that na- 
tional morality can prevail in exclusion of 
religious principle. 

"It is substantially true that virtue or mor- 
ality is a necessary spring of popular govern- 
ment. The rule, indeed extends with more 
or less force to every species of free govern- 
ment. Who, that is a sincere friend to it, 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 3 1 

can look with indifference upon attempts to 
shake the foundation of the fabric? 

"Promote, then, as an object of primary 
importance, institutions for the general diffu- 
sion of knowledge. In proportion as the 
structure of a government gives force to 
public opinion, it is essential that public 
opinion should be enlightened. 

"As a very important source of strength 
and security, cherish public credit. One 
method of preserving it is, to use it as spar- 
ingly as possible; avoiding occasions of ex- 
pense by cultivating peace, but remembering 
also that timely disbursements to prepare for 
danger frequently prevent much greater dis- 
bursements to repel it; avoiding likewise the 
accumulation of debt, not only by shunning 
occasions of expense, but by vigorous exer- 
tion in time of peace to discharge the debts, 
which unavoidable wars may have occa- 
sioned, not ungenerously throwing upon pos- 
terity the burden which we ourselves ought 
to bear. The execution of these maxims be- 
longs to your representatives, but it is neces- 



32 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

sary that public opinion should co-operate. 
To facilitate to them the performance of 
their duty it is essential that you should 
practically bear in mind that towards the 
payment of debts there must be revenue; 
that to have revenue there must be taxes; 
that no taxes can be devised which are not 
more or less inconvenient and unpleasant; 
that the intrinsic embarrassment, inseparable 
from the selection of the proper objects 
(which is always a choice of difficulties), 
ought to be a decisive motive for a candid 
construction of the conduct of the govern- 
ment in making it, and for a spirit of acqui- 
escence in the measures for obtaining revenue 
which the public exigencies may at any time 
dictate. 

"Observe good faith and justice towards 
all nations; cultivate peace and harmony 
with all. Religion and morality enjoin this 
conduct; and can it be that good policy 
does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy 
of a free, enlightened, and at no distant 
period a great nation, to give to mankind the 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 33 

magnanimous and too novel example of a 
people always guided by an exalted justice 
and benevolence. Who can doubt that in the 
course of time and things, the fruits of such 
a plan would richly repay any temporary 
advantages, which might be lost by a steady 
adherence to it? Can it be that Providence 
has not connected the permanent felicity of 
a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at 
least, is recommended by every sentiment 
which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it 
rendered impossible by its vices? 

"In the execution of such a plan, nothing 
is more essential than that permanent, invet- 
erate antipathies against particular nations, 
and passionate attachments for others, should 
be excluded; and that, in place of them, just 
and amicable feelings towards all should be 
cultivated. The nation which indulges to- 
wards another an habitual hatred, or an habit- 
ual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a 
slave to its animosity or to its affection, either 
of which is sufficient to lead it astray from 
its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one 



34 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

nation against another disposes each more 
readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold 
of slight causes of umbrage, and to be 
haughty and intractable when accidental or 
trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence, 
frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and 
bloody contests. The nation, prompted by 
ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to 
war the government, contrary to the best cal- 
culations of policy. The government some- 
times participates in the national propensity, 
and adopts through passion what reason 
would reject; at other times, it makes the 
animosity of the nation subservient to pro- 
jects of hostility instigated by pride, ambi- 
tion, and other sinister and pernicious mo- 
tives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps 
the liberty, of nations has been the victim. 

"So likewise, a passionate attachment of 
one nation for another produces a variety of 
evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, fa- 
cilitating the illusion of an imaginary com- 
mon interest in cases where no real common 
interest exists, and infusing into one the en- 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 35 

mities of the other, betrays the former into a 
participation in the quarrels and wars of the 
latter, without adequate inducement or justi- 
fication. It leads also to concessions to the 
favorite nation of privileges denied to others, 
which is apt doubly to injure the nation mak- 
ing the concessions, by unnecessarily parting 
with what ought to have been retained, and 
by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposi- 
tion to retaliate, in the parties from whom 
equal privileges are withheld. And it gives 
to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens 
(who devote themselves to the favorite na- 
tion), facility to betray or sacrifice the inter- 
ests of their own country, without odium, 
sometimes even with popularity; gilding with 
the appearances of a virtuous sense of obliga- 
tion, a commendable deference for public 
opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, 
the base or foolish compliances of ambition, 
corruption, or infatuation. 

"As avenues to foreign influence in innum- 
erable ways such attachments are particularly 
alarming to the truly enlightened and inde- 



36 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

pendent patriot. How many opportunities do 
they afford to tamper with domestic factions, 
to practise the arts of seduction, to mislead 
public opinion, to influence or awe public 
councils! Such an attachment of a small or 
weak, towards a great and powerful nation, 
dooms the former to be the satellite of the 
latter. 

"Against the insidious wiles of foreign in- 
fluence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow- 
citizens), the jealousy of a free people ought 
to be constantly awake, since history and ex- 
perience prove that foreign influence is one 
of the most baneful foes of republican gov- 
ernment. But that jealousy, to be useful, must 
be impartial; else it becomes the instrument 
of the very influence to be avoided, instead of 
a defence against it. Excessive partiality for 
one foreign nation, and excessive dislike for 
another, cause those whom they actuate to 
see danger only on one side, and serve to 
veil and even second the arts of influence 
on the other. Real patriots who may resist 
the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to be- 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 37 

come suspected and odious; while its tools 
and dupes usurp the applause and confidence 
of the people, to surrender their interests. 

"The great rule of conduct for us, in re- 
gard to foreign nations, is, in extending our 
commercial relations, to have with them as 
little political connection as possible. So far 
as we have already formed engagements, let 
them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. 
Here let us stop. 

"Europe has a set of primary interests, 
which to us have none, or a very remote re- 
lation. Hence she must be engaged in fre- 
quent controversies, the causes of which are 
essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, 
therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate 
ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary 
vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary 
combinations and collisions of her friend- 
ships or enmities. 

"Our detached and distant situation invites 
and enables us to pursue a different course. 
If we remain one people, under an efficient 
government, the period is not far off when 



38 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

we may defy material injury from external 
annoyance; when we may take such an atti- 
tude as will cause the neutrality, we may at 
any time resolve upon, to be scrupulously 
respected; when belligerent nations, under the 
impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, 
will not lightly hazard the giving us provo- 
cation ; when we may choose peace or war, as 
our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel. 

"Why forego the advantages of so peculiar 
a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon 
foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our 
destiny with that of any part of Europe, en- 
tangle our peace and prosperity in the toils 
of European ambition, rivalship, interest, 
humor, or caprice? 

"It is our true policy to steer clear of per- 
manent alliances with any portion of the for- 
eign world ; so far, I mean, as we are now at 
liberty to do it; for let me not be understood 
as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing 
engagements. I hold the maxim no less ap- 
plicable to public than to private affairs, that 
honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 39 

therefore, let those engagements be observed 
in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it 
is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend 
them. 

"Taking care always to keep ourselves, by 
suitable establishments, on a respectable de- 
fensive posture, we may safely trust to tem- 
porary alliances for extraordinary emergen- 
cies. 

"Harmony, liberal intercourse with all na- 
tions, are recommended by policy, humanity, 
and interest. But even our commercial policy 
should hold an equal and impartial hand; 
neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors 
or preferences; consulting the natural course 
of things ; diffusing and diversifying by gentle 
means the streams of commerce, but forcing 
nothing; establishing with powers so dis- 
posed, in order to give trade a stable course, 
to define the rights of our merchants, and to 
enable the government to support them, con- 
ventional rules of intercourse, the best that 
present circumstances and mutual opinion 
will permit, but temporary, and liable to be 



40 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

from time to time abandoned or varied, as 
experience and circumstances shall dictate; 
constantly keeping in view, that it is folly in 
one nation to look for disinterested favors 
from another; that it must pay with a por- 
tion of its independence for whatever it may 
accept under that character; that, by such 
acceptance, it may place itself in the condi- 
tion of having given equivalents for nominal 
favors, and yet of being reproached with in- 
gratitude for not giving more. There can be 
no greater error than to expect or calculate 
upon real favors from nation to nation. It is 
an illusion, which experience must cure, 
which a just pride ought to discard. 

"In offering to you, my countrymen, these 
counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I 
dare not hope they will make the strong and 
lasting impression I could wish; that they 
will control the usual current of the passions, 
or prevent our nation from running the course 
which has hitherto marked the destiny of na- 
tions. But, if I may even flatter myself that 
they may be productive of some partial bene- 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 4 1 

fit, some occasional good; that they may now 
and then recur to moderate the fury of party 
spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of for- 
eign intrigue, to guard against the impostures 
of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a 
full recompense for the solicitude for your 
welfare, by which they have been dictated. 

"How far in the discharge of my official 
duties I have been guided by the principles 
which have been delineated, the public rec- 
ords and other evidences of my conduct must 
witness to you and to the world. To myself, 
the assurance of my own conscience is, that 
I have at least believed myself to be guided 
by them. 

"In relation to the still subsisting war in 
Europe, my proclamation of the 22d of 
April, 1793, is the index of my plan. Sanc- 
tioned by your approving voice, and by that 
of your Representatives in both Houses of 
Congress, the spirit of that measure has con- 
tinually governed me, uninfluenced by any 
attempts to deter or divert me from it. 



42 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

"After deliberate examination, with the aid 
of the best lights I could obtain, I was well 
satisfied that our country, under all the cir- 
cumstances of the case, had a right to take, 
and was bound in duty and interest to take, a 
neutral position. Having taken it, I determ- 
ined, as far as should depend upon me, to 
maintain it, with moderation, perseverance 
and firmness. 

"The considerations which respect the 
right to hold this conduct, it is not necessary 
on this occasion to detail. I will only ob- 
serve, that, according to my understanding of 
the matter, that right, so far from being de- 
nied by any of the belligerent powers, has 
been virtually admitted by all. 

"The duty of holding a neutral conduct 
may be inferred, without anything more, 
from the obligation which justice and hu- 
manity impose on every nation, in cases in 
which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate 
the relations of peace and amity towards 
other nations. 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 43 

"The inducements of interest for observing 
that conduct will best be referred to your 
own reflections and experience. With me a 
predominant motive has been to endeavor to 
gain time to our country to settle and mature 
its yet recent institutions, and to progress 
without interruption to that degree of strength 
and consistency which is necessary to give it, 
humanly speaking, the command of its own 
fortunes. 

"Though, in reviewing the incidents of my 
administration, I am unconscious of inten- 
tional error, I am nevertheless too sensible 
of my defects not to think it probable that I 
may have committed many errors. Whatever 
they may be, I fervently beseech the Al- 
mighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which 
they may tend. I shall also carry with me 
the hope that my country will never cease to 
view them with indulgence; and that, after 
forty-five years of my life dedicated to its 
service with an upright zeal, the faults of 
incompetent abilities will be consigned to 



44 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

oblivion, as myself must soon be to the man- 
sions of rest. 

"Relying on its kindness in this as in other 
things, and actuated by that fervent love to- 
wards it, which is so natural to a man who 
views in it the native soil of himself and his 
progenitors for several generations, I antici- 
pate with pleasing expectation that retreat in 
which I promise myself to realize, without 
alloy, the sweet enjoyment of partaking, in 
the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign 
influence of good laws under a free govern- 
ment, the ever favorite object of my heart, 
and the happy reward, as I trust, of our mu- 
tual cares, labors, and dangers. 

"George Washington/' 

A singular story has arisen to the effect that 
the foregoing address was written by Alexan- 
der Hamilton, and merely delivered by 
Washington. In 1841, Professor McVickar, 
of Columbia College, called upon John Jay, 
the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 
of the United States, and asked him about 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 45 

the story. Jay replied that Washington had 
submitted the address to Hamilton and him- 
self for suggestions; and that "not wishing 
to spoil Washington's fair manuscript, they 
had made their notes (only a few) on a 
copy which was made by Hamilton for the 
purpose. Jay concluded thus: "My opinion, 
my dear sir; you shall freely have. I have al- 
ways thought General Washington compe- 
tent to write his own addresses." 

The personality of Washington does not 
suffer with the lapse of time. He is like a 
great mountain, which grows higher and 
higher, and broader and broader, as one puts 
mile after mile between one's self and its base. 
The forests and foothills which hide its top 
on nearer view, melt and sink into the general 
mass, until nothing is left but one great 
towering, majestic peak, crowned with eter- 
nal snows, which so dominates the scene that 
one can neither think of, nor look at any- 
thing else. Such was Washington. The men 
of his time who fought and struggled and 
schemed and hoped and feared, have sunk 



46 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

into the oblivion, from which they came ; and 
the few really great names left serve only to 
make manifest the greater greatness of Wash- 
ington himself. He is a colossal figure in 
the history of his country. He is a colossal 
figure in the history of the Anglo-Saxon race; 
a colossal figure in the history of the world. 

Lecky, the great English historian, says of 
Washington : 

"In civil as in military life he was pre- 
eminent among his contemporaries for the 
clearness and soundness of his judgment, for 
his perfect moderation and self-control, for 
the quiet dignity and the indomitable firm- 
ness with which he pursued every path which 
he had deliberately chosen. Of all the great 
men in history, he was the most invariably 
judicious, and there is scarcely a rash word 
or action recorded of him." 

Washington entered upon his first term as 
the head of a people who were far from be- 
ing united. The country was an aggregation 
of thirteen jealous, and more or less selfish 
states. The forces of disruption, — what 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 47 

might be called the centrifugal tendencies — 
nearly balanced those which held us together. 
He strove to make us really a nation. The 
work he started went forward slowly at first, 
and for many years thereafter; but the great 
Civil War of 1861 showed that it was nearly 
done. Our grandfathers had come to love 
the Constitution with a feeling which 
amounted almost to religious devotion. Lin- 
coln voiced the feeling of the North when he 
said it was his duty to save the Union; that 
he would save it either with slavery or with- 
out slavery, as he might, but that he would 
save the Union. Then came the long, heart- 
rending strain of war; disaster after disaster, 
and victory at last in the West, where Grant 
captured Vicksburg, and in the East, where 
the Confederacy went down in irretrievable 
ruin at Gettysburg, both on the same day. 
The Emancipation Proclamation soon fol- 
lowed. It was at Gettysburg that Lincoln 
delivered his greatest speech. Never has so 
much been said in so few words. It is as 
follows : 



48 american political classics 

The Gettysburg Speech. 

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers 
brought forth on this continent a new nation, 
conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the 
proposition that all men are created equal. 

"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, 
testing whether that nation, or any nation so 
conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. 
We are met on a great battlefield of that war. 
We have come to dedicate a portion of that 
field as a final resting-place for those who 
here gave their lives that that nation might 
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that 
we should do this. 

"But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate 
— we cannot consecrate — we cannot idlow^ 
this ground. The brave men, living and 
dead, who struggled here, have consecrated 
it far above our poor power to add or de- 
tract. The world will little note nor long 
remember what we say here, but it can never 
forget what they did here. It is for us, the 
living, rather, to be dedicated here to the 



h 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 49 

unfinished work which they who fought here 
have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather 
for us to be here dedicated to the great task 
remaining before us — that from these honored 
dead we take increased devotion to that 
cause for which they gave the last full meas- 
ure of devotion; that we here highly resolve 
that these dead shall not have died in vain; 
that this nation, under God, shall have a new 
birth of freedom; and that government of the 
people, by the people, for the people, shall not 
perish from the earth." 

It is related that after Lincoln had ceased 
to speak perfect silence reigned. Not a 
sound came from the great audience. Sick 
at heart, he returned to Washington. He felt 
that he had not touched his hearers with the 
fire of patriotism which burned within him. 
But the next day came a letter of warm com- 
mendation from Edward Everett, to which 
Lincoln replied that he was happy to know 
that his address "was not entirely a failure." 
Then came a flood of letters and a chorus of 
enthusiastic praise from the press, and Lin- 



£0 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

coin knew that he had made one of the 
speeches of all ages. The mystery was solved. 
He had found the very heart of his audience. 
Awe-struck, they had heard the words of one 
inspired. Applause seemed sacrilege. 

But the weary war went on. The Confed- 
eracy had been mortally wounded at Vicks- 
burg and Gettysburg — the end was certain, 
but much hard fighting remained. In 1864 
Lincoln came up for re-election, and carried 
all before him. It was upon March 4th of 
the following year that he delivered another 
masterpiece. It was 

Lincoln's Second Inaugural. 

He said: 

"Fellow-countrymen: At this second ap- 
pearing to take the oath of the presidential 
office, there is less occasion for an extended 
address than there was at the first. Then a 
statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to 
be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, 
at the expiration of four years, during which 
public declarations have been constantly 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 5 1 

called forth on every point and phase of the 
great contest which still absorbs the attention 
and engrosses the energies of the nation, little 
that is new could be presented. The progress 
of our arms, upon which all else chiefly de- 
pends, is as well known to the public as to 
myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satis- 
factory and encouraging to all. With high 
hope for the future, no prediction in regard 
to it is ventured. 

"On the occasion corresponding to this, 
four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously 
directed to an impending civil war. All 
dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the 
inaugural address was being delivered from 
this place, devoted altogether to saving the 
Union without war, insurgent agents were in 
the city seeking to destroy it without war — 
seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide ef- 
fects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated 
war; but one of them would make war rather 
than let the nation survive; and the other 
would accept war rather than let it perish. 
And the war came. 



52 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

"One-eighth of the whole population were 
colored slaves, not distributed generally over 
the Union, but localized in the southern part 
of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and 
powerful interest. All knew that this inter- 
est was, somehow, the cause of the war. To 
strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this inter- 
est was the object for which the insurgents 
would rend the Union, even by war; while 
the government claimed no right to do more 
than to restrict the territorial enlargement of 
it. 

"Neither party expected for the war the 
magnitude or the duration which it has al- 
ready attained. Neither anticipated that the 
cause of the conflict might cease with, or even 
before, the conflict itself should cease. Each 
looked for an easier triumph, and a result 
less fundamental and astounding. Both read 
the same Bible, and pray to the same God; 
and each invokes his aid against the other. 
It may seem strange that any men should 
dare to ask a just God's assistance in wring- 
ing their bread from the sweat of other men's 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 53 

faces; but let us judge not, that we be not 
judged. The prayers of both could not be 
answered — -that of neither has been answered 
fully. 

"The Almighty has his own purposes. 
Woe unto the world because of offenses! for 
it must needs be that offenses come ; but woe 
to that man by whom the offense cometh.' 
If we shall suppose that American slavery is 
one of those offenses which, in the providence 
of God, must needs come, but which, having 
continued through His appointed time, he 
now wills to remove, and that he gives to 
both North and South this terrible war, as 
the woe due to those by whom the offense 
came, shall we discern therein any departure 
from those divine attributes which the be- 
lievers in a living God always ascribe to him? 
Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray — 
that this mighty scourge of war may speedily 
pass away. Yet, if God wills, that it continue 
until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's 
two hundred and fifty years of unrequited 
toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of 



54 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by 
another drawn with the sword, as was said 
three thousand years ago, so still it must be 
said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true 
and righteous altogether.' 

"With malice toward none ; with charity for 
all; with firmness in the right, as God gives 
us to see the right, let us strive on to finish 
the work we are in; to bind up the nation's 
wounds; to care for him who shall have 
borne the battle, and for his widow, and his 
orphan — to do all which may achieve and 
cherish a just and lasting peace among our- 
selves, and with all nations." 



The foregoing public utterances may be 
called the American Political Classics. It 
would be difficult to match them in any other 
language. They come from men who were 
pre-eminent in their services to the Constitu- 
tion. That great document is the charter of 
our liberties. Like the ten commandments, 
it is as true today as it was when written. It 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 55 

was not a discovery, but a statement of truths 
which had gradually dawned upon the world 
during the lapse of ages. It was the logical 
result of Magna Charta, which had been ex- 
torted from King John five hundred and 
seventy years before. 

The keynote of that constitution and the 
government which was organized under it, is 
that the individual shall be left the utmost 
liberty of personal action which is consistent 
with the safety of society. The sphere of the 
state is to be restricted to the greatest extent 
compatible with an effective government. 

Under this system we have had all the 
liberty of the primitive man, and also the ad- 
vantages of an orderly society. The Ameri- 
can has developed an energy, self-reliance, 
resourcefulness and power of prompt organi- 
zation not equaled by any other race. We 
have met every crisis in our history, and have 
won against obstacles which would have been 
fatal to any nation except our Anglo-Saxon 
cousins. The last world war was brought to 
a triumphant close; but it was not by our 



56 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

government, but by the American People 
who rose as one man to prevent the success 
of the most gigantic criminal conspiracy in 
the history of the world. Soldiers drawn by 
conscription speedily become animated by 
the spirit of volunteers. They learned in six 
months the art of war which it took Euro- 
peans two years to acquire. Citizens earn- 
ing salaries of thousands gave up their posi- 
tions to serve their country for a dollar a 
year. And we won. This all came from the 
manly independence of character which was 
developed by a Constitution which gave 
every man an opportunity to develop along 
his own lines and make the most of himself. 
Such a constitution is worth preserving. 
President McKinley said of it: 

"The constitution is a sacred instrument 
and a sacred trust. It is given to us to see 
to it that it is preserved in all its virtue and 
vigor, and passed on to generations yet to 
come." 

But free though our country is, and excel- 
lent though our constitution, both have ene- 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 57 

mies. We are too strong to be attacked from 
without if we keep ourselves in a reasonable 
state of preparation. Our enemies are among 
us. They are men who have come here to 
better their condition and not from a love of 
our country; men who hated the government 
which they left because they had suffered 
galling tyranny, and who do not realize that 
they need not fear it here. It was the bullet 
of an assassin of this class which put an end 
to the life of McKinley. Their ranks are 
swelled by many among us who have failed 
in life because of their own deficiencies, but 
blame society for their failure. These are 
our enemies within. They preach the gospel 
of discontent and hatred of the existing order 
of things. By revolution and the bomb, they 
would overthrow everything, hoping to profit 
by some new system which they have not 
worked out, even in their own minds. They 
set all laws at defiance. 

The rock upon which our country is found- 
ed is the law-abiding spirit of the people. 
As the people — by their representatives in the 



58 AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 

various legislatures — make the laws, the peo- 
ple must obey them until they shall have been 
lawfully changed. Otherwise the republic is 
at an end. So said Lincoln. To use the 
words of Washington: "The basis of our 
political systems is the right of the people to 
make and to alter their constitutions of gov- 
ernment. But the constitution which at any 
time exists, till changed by the explicit and 
authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly 
obligatory upon all. The very idea of the 
power and the right of the people to establish 
governments presupposes the duty of every 
individual to obey the established govern- 
ment." 

The reason why Mexico is now, and will 
long remain in a state of anarchy, is because 
no one feels bound to obey the law if it be 
in any way inconvenient to him. The same 
is true of the countries to the south of that 
unhappy land. The governments of all of 
them are as unstable as the sands. Ours has 
always shown a gratifying contrast, because 
our people have always been self-restrained 



AMERICAN POLITICAL CLASSICS 59 

by this law-abiding sentiment. If Mexico 
could be converted to that state of feeling, 
she would have a sound and safe government 
and a happy people within a year. There- 
fore, let us obey the law, because it is the law, 
because we have too much self-respect to be 
law-breakers. Let us put down firmly every 
man, every organization and every party 
which preaches any other doctrine. Let us 
insist that the ballot box be the sole method 
of settling disputes. The American people 
are honest and just; and every well-founded 
grievance is sure to be remedied in the end. 
So shall our beloved country be preserved 
and move onward in its course until our des- 
tiny shall be reached and won and made 
secure. 



THE END 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



022 021 635 4 




